I went to the gym and read Wired magazine while I pedaled. I ate up The See-Through CEO story by Clive Thompson. I go to his blog and read how even thinking of working out can have a placebo effect that helps you actually lose weight.

Ok, one more tangent…he writes about sloths. In high school my group of friends in the apathy club called themselves a bunch of sloths. So I have a fond association with sloths, even though I now don’t like to be one.

That whole exercise was for me to find the story on his blog that helped form the story he wrote in Wired (with comments from his blog). No luck. But here is the punchline. Search engines are collective memories (or as he says, a reputation management system) for your business and your life. Once you’ve entered this large conversation and start telling the truth, you can’t go back. You can’t lie anymore.

A search engine holds your legacy online. If you’re quiet or hide that just means other people will fill the search engines about you or your business. Long after you die you have a record about you. Will it show integrity? What will your great-great granddaughter read about you? He quotes a reader as saying it’s ok to have secrets, but not lies. They will follow you everywhere.

Benefits of transparency online:

• it’s easier for others to enter the conversation – customers become working partners and better products, or articles result
• we can better know our leaders – even our politicians
• just like in real life, when you listen, people are moved…writing a blog is a form of listening
• you have a say in what shows up in search engines about you by how you respond to negative stories

I’ll let you talk about the negatives, they are there too. This is just getting long and I’m ready to write two more posts. Ah, if only I didn’t have to work for a living!

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